Macdonald faces prosecution over granting a coal mining exploration licence in the Hunter valley to Doyles Creek Mining, a company owned by former mining union official John Maitland, without putting out a tender.
The minister added that mining billionaire Andrew Forrest's review into Indigenous disadvantage was an "incredible document" but the government wasn't ready to implement its most contentious proposal – that all Australians receiving welfare should have their spending managed by government.
Nhulunbuy, in remote north-east Arnhem Land, is a town owned and operated by Rio Tinto since 2007, when the mining company bought the Gove bauxite mine and refinery, established in 1963.
Related: Boom and dust: uncertain future for the mining town run by Rio Tinto "There were so many emotions and mostly it boiled down to feeling stressed, and the obvious place to come was the practice," Chalmers tells Guardian Australia.
Billy Elliot winningly forsook his mining heritage to pursue a post-industrial career in ballet, pirouetting past the picketlines, but his dream was ultimately embraced by the community, whose whip-round gets him to the big London audition.
One of the company's leading lines, Casillero del Diablo, takes its name from the tale, although it seems unlikely that a 19th-century mining magnate and prominent politician would really have spent his evenings lurking in dank corners wearing fancy dress.
Icac concluded in its report that the Obeids had arranged for another mining company vying for the licence to withdraw its application, which it suggested was "arguably illegal" under competition law.
Abbott says the government is helping by scrapping the carbon and mining taxes.
This is a tough, working-class region – the landscape is mottled with slag heaps – and, with its long history of mining and poverty, the overall atmosphere is of a French-speaking Yorkshire.
Despite a recovery in the mining sector, leading shares are heading lower again.
With gold stabilising after its recent declines - which were based on worries about countries such as Cyprus selling some of their reserves along with signs of slowdown in China - and base metals such as copper recovering, mining shares regained some lost ground.
